Japan’s imports of unwrought aluminium alloy dropped by 13pc in December on lower demand in the auto industry.
Japan imported 89,754mt of aluminium alloy in December, down by 13,396mt from a year ago. China continued to be the top supplier, however, exports from China dropped by 35pc or 12,702mt in December from the prior year.
Exports from China dropped despite a 30pc increase in the country’s aluminium alloy production in December from a year ago on weak demand from manufacturers of rolled aluminium products.
Japan’s imports of aluminium alloy in 2019 decreased to 1.16mn mt from 1.28mn mt, a drop of 8.8pc from the prior year.
Japan’s aluminium alloy imports from China fell to 347,102mt in 2019 from 369,611mt in 2018, down by 6pc followed by a
drop in imports from Russia to 197,478mt.